How Should You Evaluate VPNs? Consider These Questions

Does your VPN provider have a stake in any review websites? Do they store any browsing or network activity data? Your VPN should be transparent about these and other questions, the Center for Democracy and Technology says.

With so many consumer VPNs on the market, it can be tough to know which one to go with.

To help you make that decision, the D.C.-based nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, with the help of five VPN companies, just launched a new initiative called Signals for Trustworthy VPNs. As part of that initiative, the CDT and its partners—ExpressVPN, IVPN, Mullvad, TunnelBear, and VyprVPN—have developed a set of questions they say VPN services should answer.

The questions touch on everything from a company's business model to its privacy, security, and data use practices.

Here's a few important questions to consider: Does your VPN provider have a stake in any review websites? Do they store any browsing or network activity data? What's their process for responding to law enforcement requests for data? How do they protect user data against hacking attempts?

"A quick search for 'VPN' on an app store...reveals how opaque and confusing it can be to sort through the number and variety of different VPNs," the CDT said in a statement. "Many promise additional security and privacy, but as the US Federal Trade Commission has warned, promises alone do not necessarily make a VPN trustworthy."

In a statement, ExpressVPN VP Harold Li said to think of the questions as a "nutrition label for VPNs, providing a baseline set of facts you can compare across various services."

Related

The CDT is encouraging VPN providers to post the answers to its questions on their websites under the heading "Signals of Trustworthy VPNs." To get the ball rolling, the five VPN partners have already posted their responses.

About the Author

Angela has been a PCMag reporter since January 2012. Prior to joining the team, she worked as a reporter for SC Magazine, covering everything related to hackers and computer security. Angela has also written for The Northern Valley Suburbanite in New Jersey, The Dominion Post in West Virginia, and the Uniontown-Herald Standard in Pennsylvania. She ... See Full Bio

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